A touch of the face here, a lick of the finger there. We've all seen TV chefs do it before. But, do these minor transgressions add up to poor food safety?

In an effort to determine how effective television cooking shows are at demonstrating good food safety practices, researchers at Texas Tech University recently completed a study analyzing programs broadcast by the Food Network.

Similar studies of television food programs have occurred in other countries - notably an evaluation of television cooking shows on public television in the UK and Canada. The Texas Tech study purports to be the first such study ever conducted in the U.S.

Over a two-week period in May 2007, researchers watched 49 Food Network cooking shows, including "30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray," "The Essence of Emeril," "Everyday Italian," "Paula's Home Cooking, and "Semi Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee," coding instances of 17 different categories of "positive" and "negative" behaviors.

According to the researchers, positive behaviors included hand washing, cleaning equipment, washing fruits and vegetables, adequate refrigeration, and use of a thermometer. Negative behaviors, included the use of food from the floor, failure to refrigerate perishables, failure to wash fruits or vegetables, inadequately washing equipment, sampling food or licking fingers, cross-contamination of ready-to-eat or raw foods, touching the face and failing to wash hands.

The researchers identified a total of 460 poor food handling incidents and 118 positive food-safety behaviors. Certain behaviors deemed to be poor -- such as not washing fruits, vegetables and herbs properly, as well as a lack of hand washing in general - were prevalent.

TV chef Paula Deen figured prominently in the results, both positive and negative. "Overwhelmingly, Paula Deen improperly sampled food or licked her fingers the most, with 20 observations in nine shows," wrote Erica Irlbeck, one of the study's co-authors, in an email. On the other hand, she noted that Deen also "exhibited the correct method to sample food, from an individual serving dish, more than any other host (eight)."

I asked Irlbeck whether hand washing and washing of produce, while absent from the broadcast, may simply take place before the cameras start rolling. "We are very well aware of the fact that a lot of the food safety behaviors not exhibited on these shows most likely occurs off camera," she wrote. "The Food Network is primarily entertainment, and watching someone wash vegetables or clean countertops is not very entertaining. Additionally, in a 30 minute television program, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to demonstrate every food safety practice. With that said, some simple changes (they're listed in the study) to future, and possibly existing, shows could be very beneficial to demonstrate safe cooking practices to the amateur cook."

One of the recommendations was the addition of graphics, superimposed on-screen during the shows, to "explain the necessary precautions to prevent foodborne illness."

Brooke Johnson, president of the Food Network, reacted to the study with the following statement:

"Food Network was not involved in the research process of this study and we have not been given the opportunity to review the full findings. However, we can say with complete confidence that we adhere to established food safety standards when producing our programs, discussing these practices regularly with the producers, cooking experts and chefs involved in Food Network programming. Food Network Kitchens has developed a printed manual, "Food Handling Producer Guidelines," that is provided to those involved in the production of our shows. In addition, we regularly inform our viewers of a variety of food safety practices and feature an area on our Web site (www.foodnetwork.com) devoted to the subject.

"An important distinction is that our programming depicts cooking, dining and entertaining as a fun, shared experience. It would be out of context to present all the safety standards you would expect in restaurants (such as hairnets and gloves) when most of our shows portray cooking at home. It should be noted, as with any instructional or project-based program, not every step of the process is captured in the final, edited episode. But we do our very best to present viewers with the tools necessary to be safe while enjoying cooking at home."

Irlbeck, a self-described "huge fan "of the Food Network, says that she won't be changing her TV habits based on her findings: "Doing this study did not make me less of a fan -- it just created an opportunity to point out, especially to beginner cooks, that many food safety practices are not being demonstrated. The Food Network has an opportunity to educate the fans at home how to safely prepare foods."

I don't think I'm particularly fastidious but I'm always struck by the lack of hand washing on cooking shows. For instance, I remember an episode on the Naked Chef where Jamie Oliver arrived at a restaurant on his motorcycle, walked inside, and immediately began making pasta.

I've also noticed that some of the hand washing on cooking shows consists of perhaps a three second splash under the faucet. I admit that waiting for the water to get hot and taking a full 30 seconds to wash your hands with soap wouldn't make for very compelling television. Never the less, I cringe every time I see something like this.

Sep 19, 2008 6:07:25 PMPosted By: grown up

Folks, this is a TV show for entertainment.

Let's leave the chefs alone. It gives us a look at their personalities, not their good/bad habits. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt that they DO wash up on a regular basis in their own kitchens, properly.

As for Tyler, have you ever even been in a commercial kitchen? Chefs use their aprons to wipe hands on all the time. No different then jeans, as long as they were clean to begin with and Tyler always appears CLEAN.

If Foodnetwork does decide to do some teaching of tecniques for proper food handling/cleaning, I hope they will do it in a 15 second spot commercial rather then a disclaimer over the show.

Sep 19, 2008 6:48:26 PMPosted By: Chris

Having run studio cameras for a cooking show, I feel I should point something out. In a 30 minute show, you have roughly 22 minutes for content... 42-44 for an hour long program. You'd be surprised how fast that time gets eaten up (no pun intended). In the interest of getting the important info into the show, they don't want to spend 8-10 minutes watching the host scrub his/her hands.

This is pretty funny...does anyone really care what the chef is doing while he's pretending to cook a meal? Come on

Oct 12, 2008 2:47:13 AMPosted By: matt

Have you never licked your own fingers while cooking. Did you never lick the cake mix off the beaters as a kid. Have you never scratched that itch while cooking yourself....Come on. Do you really need to analyze every aspect of what tv chefs do. They are showing their way on how to cook a product. They are still human. They need to taste whether there is enough salt or if the meat in the stew is cooked enough. And if their nose gets itchy in the process, let them scratch it.
I could sit here and analyze negative points in any profession but my time is more valuable than trying to bring successful people down. I watch a carpenter on tv hammer a nail without safety goggles but do I care...no, because in the real world who does.

Oct 17, 2008 8:01:18 PMPosted By: jh749

It is disgusting to watch Paula, Rachel or anyone else mix meatloaf wearing big ornate rings or other bangles.Those rings are ecrusted with years worth of grot. It wouldn't eat up airtime if they took them off. It's also humorous to watch them turn on a tap with "chicken hands", wash, then turn off the contaminated faucet with their "clean" hands. As a surgeon, I may be overly sensitive to hand hygene but if you're going to pay lip service to cleanliness, show people how to do it right.

I watch a lot of cooking shows and find them interesting. I have noticed a lot of violations of Food Safety on a regular basis. Food Storage,Saftety,and Preparation plays a big part in providing safe food to your Family and Friends.